Invited speakers

Ralph E. Sturgeon

Ralph E. Sturgeon received his PhD in in analytical chemistry in 1977.  Following graduation he immediately accepted a position as Research Associate in the Analytical Chemistry Group, Division of Chemistry at the National Research Council, Ottawa.    In1998 he became a Principal Research Officer and in 2000 was appointed Group Leader for Chemical Metrology in the Institute for National Measurement Standards, NRC, a position he held until 2010.  His interests lie in inorganic analytical chemistry, comprising trace element analysis, vapor generation, instrument development, organometallic speciation and production of Certified Reference Materials with a focus on atomic and mass spectrometric detection.  He currently serves on the advisory boards of a number of international analytical chemistry journals and holds an Adjunct Research professor position with the Department of Chemistry, Carleton University.  Since 2000, he has represented Canada on the Comité consultatif pour la quantité de matière (CCQM) under the auspices of the International Committee of Weights and Measures, participating in the working groups for both Inorganic Analysis as well as the Joint Committee on Traceability in Laboratory Medicine.

Sturgeon’s ongoing research activities are in the areas of vapor generation for sample introduction, mass bias fractionation in inorganic mass spectrometry and traceability of chemical measurements.  His contributions to analytical atomic spectroscopy have been recognized through a number of awards, including Fellowship in the Chemical Institute of Canada (1990), the Barringer (1986) and Herzberg (2002) awards of the Spectroscopy Society of Canada, the McBryde Medal (1990) and Maxxam Award (2007) from the Chemical Institute of Canada, the Ioannes Marcus Marci award (1998) of the Czech Spectroscopic Society and an NRC Outstanding Achievement Award for 2009.